In Pennsylvania Barbara Rowan (14) was raped and killed. Her body was found two weeks after she went missing in Bensalem, Bucks County. In 2015 George Franz Shaw (55) and Robert Scott Sanders were arrested for her rape and murder.
Links: USA, Pennsylvania, Murder, Rape

1984 Aug 4

In Germany Robert Brown (24), a former American soldier, struck Nicola Stiel (19) and raped her, then strangled her to prevent her from reporting the rape. In 2009 Brown was extradited to Germany to face charges that he raped and murdered the woman near where he worked on a US military base in Hesse state.
Links: USA, Germany, Murder, Rape

1984 Aug 31

In southern California Ebora Alexander (57), the mother or 49ers star Kermit Alexander, was shot dead along with his sister and two nephews. Tiequon Cox, a member of the Rollin’ 60 Crips, was later convicted of the murders and sentenced to death. Two others were sentenced to life in prison.
Links: USA, California, Murder

1984 Sep 14

In Georgia Taressa Stanley, a clerk at a Quickie convenience store in Warner Robbins, was killed during a robbery. Police soon arrested Timothy R. Johnson (22) and reportedly frightened him into pleading guilty. Georgia’s Supreme Court overturned Johnson’s conviction in 2006 and he was freed in 2013 after a new jury found him not guilty on all charges.
Links: Georgia(US), Murder, Robbery

1984 Sep 21

In Cleveland, Ohio, Romell Broom (b.1956) raped a murdered Tryna Middleton (14) after abducting her at knife-point as she walked home from a football game with friends. His execution in 2009 was delayed as executioners failed to find a good vein for lethal injection.
Links: USA, Ohio, Murder, Rape

Attorney Cherie Barnard found Gary Grady, health club owner and drug dealer, shot to death in Novato, Ca. Later the same day Barnard’s husband Robert Rogers was found dead of an apparent suicide in the Berkeley Marina. In 2005 Barnard and Rogers were implicated in the 1979 murder of Robert Pfiel (27) in Wisconsin.
Links: Murder, Wisconsin, SF Bay Area

1984 Oct 19

Jerzy Popieluszko, Polish priest and dissident, was kidnapped by three secret police officers after celebrating his last mass in Bydgoszcz, central Poland. The priest was tortured to death before his body was thrown into the Vistula river, 120 km. north of Warsaw [see Oct 30, Dec 27]. Popieluszko was beatified in 2010.
Links: Poland, Murder

1984 Oct 19

In Palo Alto, Ca., Dennis Anderson (50) used a shotgun to kill Donald Mason, the former boyfriend of his 20-day wife, and then beat and blasted his wife, Karen Stoker-Anderson. He was convicted of double murder in 1985 but the ruling was overturned on the basis of mental incompetence in 1995 and a retrial began in 1997. Anderson was sentenced 17 years to life in prison.
Links: USA, Murder, SF Bay Area

In San Francisco the body of Masataka Kobayashi, chef and co-owner of the Masa’s restaurant on Bush Street, was found dead at his Knob Hill apartment. His restaurant became an immediate sensation when it opened in 1983.
Links: USA, SF, Murder

Kimberly Billy (19) of Stockton, Ca., went missing. Her remains were found in 2012 in a compacted well in Linden, Ca., and attributed to Speed Freak Killers Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Teens Amuck

1984

The body of Ruth Beroscope (50) of San Jose, Ca., was found murdered and sexually assaulted in a ditch near the Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale. In 2005 Luis Perez, already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was charged for Beroscope’s murder. He was linked by DNA and other evidence.
Links: Murder, DNA, SF Bay Area, Rape

1984

In Oklahoma John A. Boltz (52) killed his stepson (22) with multiple stabbings. Boltz was executed for the murder in 2006.
Links: USA, Murder, Oklahoma

1984

Michael Ross, former life-insurance salesman, was arrested in Connecticut. He had strangled at least 6 girls and young women. He later pleaded guilty to 2 killings in 1985 and was convicted of 4 killings in 1987. He was sentenced to death in 1997 and signed a letter in 1998 to be executed. Ross was executed May 13, 2005.
Links: USA, Murder, Connecticut

1984

Ron Levin, a con man who swindled Joe Hunt, the leader of the Billionaire Boys Club, in a $4 million commodities scam, was reported killed. Members of the club, a group of ambitious young men who put their money into get-rich-quick schemes, were accused of the slaying. James Pittman, a Hunt cohort, said in 1993 that he shot Levin in front of Hunt and helped bury the body in the Angeles National Forest. Since 1984 a number of people have claimed to have seen Levin alive. A woman said she spotted Levin on the Greek island of Mykonos on Christmas day in 1987. Hunt was convicted of 1st degree murder in 1987.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Scam

Roberta "Bibi" Lee, the college girlfriend of Bradley Page, was murdered. Page was convicted for voluntary manslaughter in 1988 and was paroled in 1995.
Links: USA, Murder

19841994

In California at least 5 elderly men were suspected of being swindled and murdered by the SF Tene family in the "foxglove" murder case. The family was related to the Tene-Bimbo Gypsy clan of New York city. In 1997 5 indictments were issued on family members. Three more suspects were still being sought.
Links: USA, California, Murder

1985 Feb 2

David Raley, a caretaker at the Carolands Chateau in Hillsborough, Ca., lured 2 teenage girls inside, where he assaulted and stabbed them, killing one. The 2nd girl survived and identified her assailant. In 2006 an appeals court upheld his death sentence.
Links: USA, California, Murder, SF Bay Area

1985 Feb 7

US drug agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena Salazar was tortured and killed at a house in Guadalajara in the presence of a half-dozen top Mexican officials. Mexican authorities found his body on March 6 at a ranch east of Guadalajara. In 1992 Ruben Zuno Arce, the brother-in-law of former president Luis Echeverria, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. In 1989 Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was arrested for complicity in the murder along with drug charges and sentenced to 40 years in prison. In 2000 Gallardo received a 2nd 40-year sentence for smuggling and bribery.
Links: USA, Mexico, Murder, Drugs

1985 Feb 17

In Tennessee Sidney Porterfield beat Ron Owens to death at his Shelby County home. On January 14, 1986, Gaile Owens (33), the wife of Ron Owens, was sentenced to death for hiring a stranger to kill her abusive husband. In 2010 her sentenced was commuted to life. In 2011 she won parole.
Links: USA, Tennessee, Murder

TimelinesA text-based site.

1985 Mar 19

In California Cinnamon Brown (15), aided by her sister-in-law, Patti Bailey, fatally shoot her stepmother Linda Brown in Orange County. David Brown (d.2014), a computer businessman, had persuaded the girls to kill his wife and went on to collect $835,000 in insurance before he was convicted in the murder. The story inspired two book and the TV miniseries “Love, Lies and Murder.”
Links: USA, California, Murder, Teens Amuck

1985 Mar 30

In Virginia Jens Soering (b.1966), the son of a Germany diplomat, stabbed to death the parents of his girlfriend, Derek (72) and Nancy Haysom (53). In court, Jens Soering claimed that Elizabeth Haysom (b.1964) was the murderer and he wanted to spare her the death penalty by confessing.
Links: USA, Virginia, Murder

1985 Apr 2

Ronnie Gardner shot and killed Utah attorney Michael Burdell during an escape attempt at the Metropolitan Hall of Justice in Salt Lake City. Gardner was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In 2010 Gardner (49) chose to die by firing squad, an option which was removed by state lawmakers in 2004, but still available to him.
Links: USA, Utah, Murder

1985 Apr 12

In Australia the charred remains of Sandra White (34) were found in rural Victoria. In 2009 Steven Hutton (54) was later accused of strangling her and setting her on fire. He is alleged to have confessed to the killing after being detained in a London psychiatric hospital following a road accident in 1990. In 2009 he was set to be extradited from Britain.
Links: Australia, Murder

1985 May 14

In Indiana Paula Cooper (b.1969) took part in the stabbing death of Ruth Pelke (78), a Bible studies teacher during a robbery with three other teens. Cooper was sentenced to death in 1986, but in 1988 the state’s high court set her death sentence aside and ordered her to serve 60 years in prison. Cooper was released from prison on June 17, 2013.
Links: USA, Murder, Indiana, Teens Amuck

Lance Cpl. Suzanne Marie Collins (b.1966) was raped, murdered and mutilated near the Naval Air Station base at Millington, Tenn. Sedley Alley was convicted for the murder in 1987 and sentenced to death. In 2006 Alley (50) was executed by lethal injected for the murder.
Links: USA, Tennessee, Murder, Rape

1985 Jul 14

Carolyn Muncey’s badly beaten body was found near her home in eastern Tennessee. Paul House was convicted in 1986 and sentenced to die for the murder. In 2008 DNA evidence indicated he was not responsible for her sexual assault and a federal judge ordered that he be quickly retried or released.
Links: USA, Tennessee, Murder, DNA

1985 Aug 7

Spc. Edward Pimental (20), a US Army soldier, left a discotheque in the western German city of Wiesbaden with a woman and was soon killed. Terrorists used Pimental's ID card to enter the US Rhein-Main air base in Frankfurt. The following day, explosives packed in a Volkswagen rocked the parking lot behind the base headquarters. Two Americans were killed and 23 people were injured. In 1994 a Frankfurt court found Eva Haule guilty of killing Pimental. In 1996 a judge said Birgit Hogefeld, who was also convicted in the Pimental killing and the Rhein-Main bombing, had lured Pimental out of the disco. In 2007 Haule (53) was released from jail after serving 21 years of a life sentence.
Links: Germany, Murder

1985 Aug 16

Mary Gioia (22) of New York and Gregory Kniffin (18) of Connecticut were shot and killed in Berkeley, Ca. Their bodies were soon found in the SF Bay with gunshot wounds to the head. They had been staying at a homeless encampment in the Berkeley Marina while waiting for the next Grateful Dead concert. Ralph International Thomas was convicted of the murders. In 2009 the 2 convictions against Thomas (55) were overturned. In 2012 the US Ninth Circuit court of Appeals said Thomas (57) was entitled to a new trial due to missing witnesses in his first trial.
Links: USA, New York, Murder, Connecticut, SF Bay Area

1985 Aug 18

Peter and Barbara Pan were found in their blood-soaked bed in Lake Merced, a housing development in San Francisco. Both had been shot in the head. Peter Pan (66), an accountant, was pronounced dead at the scene. Mrs. Pan (64) survived but would be an invalid for the rest of her life. Scrawled on the wall in lipstick were an inverted pentagram and the words "Jack the Knife." The murder was later attributed to Richard Ramirez, the “night stalker.”
Links: USA, SF, Murder

Joann Hobson (16) of Stockton, Ca., went missing. Her remains were found in 2012 in a compacted well in Linden, Ca., and attributed to Speed Freak Killers Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog.
Links: USA, California, Murder, Teens Amuck

1985 Sep 12

In Nebraska Michael Ryan (1948-2015), a cult leader, was convicted and sentenced to death in the 1984 torture and killing of James Thimm (26) and in the 1982 beating death of Luke Stice, the 5-year-old son of a cult member. Ryan's son, Dennis Ryan, and cult member Timothy Haverkamp were sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder in Thimm's death.
Links: USA, Murder, Nebraska

1985 Sep 22

The body of Betty Stuart (22) was found at Aquatic Park in Berkeley, Ca. In 2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder. He had been arrested in 1986 and was already serving a 63 year sentence for the rape and murder of 3 other women. In 2008 McKnight, a former sailor, was convicted on an additional 5 counts of first-degree murder.
Links: USA, Murder, DNA, SF Bay Area, Rape

1985 Sep 29

The body of Diane Stone (17) was found near an elementary school in Oakland, Ca. In 2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder.
Links: USA, Murder, DNA, SF Bay Area, Rape

1985 Oct 8

The body of Talita Dixon (13) was found on a trail in Redwood Regional Park in Oakland, Ca. In 2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder.
Links: USA, Murder, DNA, SF Bay Area, Rape

In SF, Ca., Barbara Martz (28) was raped and stabbed to death when she walked in on a robbery at her Potrero Hill home. In 2007 DNA evidence linked John Davis, already in prison at Pelican Bay, to her murder. On Aug 27 Davis was convicted of murder. On Dec 17 he sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Links: USA, SF, Murder, DNA, Rape

1985 Dec 9

The body of Monique Davis (18) was found behind a business in Richmond, Ca. In 2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder.
Links: USA, Murder, DNA, SF Bay Area, Rape

1985 Dec 11

A mail bomb killed Sacramento computer store owner Hugh Scrutton. The murder was attributed to the Unabomber. He had picked up a piece of nail-riddled wood that was impact a bomb.
Links: USA, California, Murder

1985 Dec 24

The body of Beverly Bryant (24) was found at an elementary school in Oakland, Ca. In 2008 prosecutors using DNA evidence said Anthony McKnight (54), already in prison for rape and attempted murder, was responsible for her murder.
Links: USA, Murder, DNA, SF Bay Area, Rape

1985 Dec 26

Dian Fossey (53), American zoologist who had studied gorillas in the wild (Gorillas in the Mist), was murdered in Rwanda. Her body was found the next day. Wayne Richard McGuire, a doctoral candidate working with Fossey, was later found guilty in absentia in Rwanda. A native tracker was also charged and died in jail. McGuire claimed total innocence.
Links: USA, Rwanda, Murder, Primates

TimelinesA text-based site.

1985 Dec 27

Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of twenty people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel. Abu Nidal was considered responsible. President Reagan blamed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Links: Austria, Italy, Palestine, Murder

1985 Dec 27

American naturalist Dian Fossey, who had studied gorillas in the wild, was found hacked to death at a research station in Rwanda.
Links: USA, Rwanda, Murder, Primates

In Santa Barbara James Tramel (17) and an accomplice were charged with stabbing to death Michael Stephenson (29), a homeless man, in what was described as a thrill crime. Tramel, who did not do the stabbing, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, where he became an ordained Episcopalian priest. In 2006 Gov. Schwarzenegger pardoned Tramel.
Links: USA, California, Murder

1985

Brenda O’Connor (20), her husband Lonnie Bond and their baby son disappeared. A video made by Leonard Lake and Charles Ng later showed her bound to a chair at his hideaway near Wilseyville in Calaveras Ct., Ca. Charles Ng was arrested in Canada for killing a dozen people in a hideaway in the Sierra Nevada foothills in 1984-1985. He fought extradition for 6 years but was finally returned to California by a Canadian Supreme Court order.
Links: Canada, USA, California, Murder

In Baltimore Flint Gregory Hunt murdered policeman Vincent Adolfo after he was stopped in a stolen car. He first chose the gas chamber for his execution, but as it approached in 1997 he changed his mind to lethal injection.
Links: USA, Maryland, Murder

1985

In Florida Daniel Remeta killed an Ocala convenience store clerk and went on a four state crime and murder spree in which 5 people were killed. He was electrocuted in 1998. Remeta had the mental age of a child and ordered snow cones for his final meal.
Links: USA, Murder, Florida

1985

In Texas John Kilheffer was killed by two hitchhikers. In 1997 Irineo Tristan Montoya was executed for holding Kilheffer down while Juan Villavicencio stabbed him 22 times. Villavicencio testified against Montoya and avoided the death sentence.
Links: USA, Murder, Texas

1985

In Virginia Helen Schartner was murdered. Joseph O'Dell III was tried and convicted for the murder and was executed in 1997. He pleaded innocence right to the moment of death and married Lori Urs just before his execution.
Links: USA, Virginia, Murder

1985

In Louisiana John Thompson was convicted of murder after prosecutors hid a blood test that would have cleared him of a prior conviction for armed robbery. A deathbed confession later cleared Thompson, who ending up spending nearly 14 years on death row.
Links: USA, Louisiana, Murder

In Alabama two fast food restaurant managers were murdered in two separate restaurant hold-ups. Anthony Ray Hinton (29) was arrested and charged with the murders despite being at work in a locked warehouse 15 minutes away during a 3rd shooting in which a survivor identified him as the gun man. Hinton was freed from prison in 2015.
Links: USA, Murder, Alabama

1986 Jan 22

The body of Yvonne Coleman (15) was found in a park in Inglewood, California. In 2008 DNA evidence linked Michael Hughes (51), already in jail for 4 other murders, to her murder and 3 others.
Links: USA, California, Murder, DNA

1986 Jan

In Florida Natalie Holley (25) was abducted after she left work at a Tampa fast food restaurant. She was later found stabbed to death. Oscar Ray Bolin was later convicted of her murder.
Links: USA, Murder, Florida

1986 Feb 24

Sherri Rasmussen (29) was beaten, shot and killed at her condominium in Los Angeles. In 2009 Police detective Stephanie Lazarus (49) was charged with the murder following DNA evidence linking her to the murder of her former boyfriend’s wife. On May 11, 2012, Lazarus (52) was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.
Links: USA, California, Murder

1986 Feb 28

Olof Palme, Swedish Prime Minister (1969-76, 82-86), was shot to death in central Stockholm. In 1996 South African former police officer Eugene de Kock said that Craig Williamson, a South African spy, was involved in the murder. In 1997 lawyer Pelle Svensson said that his client, Lars Tingstrom, wrote a statement on his deathbed in prison in 1993 that he had committed the killing. The family was convinced that Christer Pettersson, a drug addict and alcoholic, was the killer. In 1999 Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey suggested that a rival PKK organization killed Olof Palme.
Links: Sweden, Murder

Aleta Carol Bunch (16) was kidnapped, raped and murdered in Augusta, Georgia, by Alexander E. Williams IV (17). Williams was convicted and sentenced to death. In 2000 the state Supreme Court stayed the execution to see if electrocution violated the state constitution. Williams, a chronic paranoid schizophrenic, was kept synthetically sane with forced medication. His execution, set for Feb 20, was stayed on Feb 19. Williams was granted clemency Feb 25 and his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
Links: GeorgiaUS, USA, Murder, Rape

Phillip Hallford forced his daughter (15) to lure her boyfriend Eddie Shannon (16) to an isolated area in Daly County, Alabama, where he shot and killed the boy and threw his body off a bridge. Melinda Hallford was pregnant at the time of the killing and had been sexually abused by her father. In 2010 Hallford (63) was executed.
Links: Murder, Alabama

1986 Apr 30

Ranch foreman James Hazelton (28) and brother-in-law Peter Sparagana (23) were murdered near Huntsville, Texas, after they interrupted a burglary. Gary Johnson (59) was later convicted of the murders and was executed on Jan 12, 2010.
Links: USA, Murder, Texas

1986 May 5

In California the East Area Rapist bludgeoned to death Janelle Cruz (18) in her parent’s home in Irvine. This was his last known crime since a first attack on June 18, 1976, in Rancho Cordova. In 2016 the FBI and local law enforcement offered a $50,000 reward and issued a fresh appeal for public information to identify him.
Links: USA, California, Sex, Murder, FBI